This program is one that I have tested in the past and from my experience, BootIt only works on 'special' Lexar flash drives. Meaning that, it will not make your flash drive detected as a non-removable drive. And certainly will not help you in the nearly impossible task of partitioning a FAT/FAT32 or NTFS Flash drive. If anyone has been able to partition out a flash drive using this software, then please post your experience and tell me how, cause you are the an Uber geek!

I think the confusion is between two very similar products: usb hard drives(which usually have their own drivers and always have a MBR) and the cheap usb flash/pen/thumb/pocket/stick drives that are so popular. Perhaps Boot It was an older ware, designed to help BIOS detect the big usb hard drives for booting purposes. I could not find the Boot It app using the regular search on Lexar's site, maybe its just me though. And I don't own a Lexar flash drive, but as far as I can tell, some of them have a special "JumpDrive Secure Partition" on them.
See this webpage:http://www.lexar.com/support/faqs_secure.html#7

And from the Lexmark usb secure II page, "Advanced Security Software to Protect Your Data. JumpDrive Secure II Plus comes pre-loaded with advanced security software that lets you protect your data securely, quickly, and easily. You can create multiple password-protected areas called Encrypted Vaults that automatically encrypt your data with on-the-fly 256-bit AES encryption. Use the File Shredder feature to securely and thoroughly delete files so they can't be recovered-giving you complete peace of mind that your data is secure. "
-Well either way the Lexar Secure jump drives have a unique colored gauge that tells you how much space you have left LOL.

I have had a lot of fun making my bootable USB flash drives using WinBuilder,Bart'sPe,Grub,MyahOs,Ubuntu,Hiren'sBootCD,Acronis,etc.. The problem is that to dual/triple boot a usb flash drive you need multiple partitions, and I can't make em to save my life. If you want to make a working bootable XP PE (preinstall environment) on your flash drive, you should really try the last link in this dreadfully long post. Its do-able with 512mb RAM and you will see that XP does 2 usb scans, one at startup and one at the XP logo screen, which causes 95% of the problems with booting from a usb stick.

2) Hardware Method (fails)- http://www.lancelhoff.com/make-windows- ... ocal-disk/
-I did this tutorial and got a little nervous part way through, but I did not notice a difference in the pen drive's detection, it was still removable, but i think the driver name did change. After a restart the driver name reverted back to the original??? that didn't make much sense to me...

3) Single OS bootable USB pendrivehttp://users.telenet.be/Robvdb/BootPEUSB_UK.htm
-tutorial for making a basic bootable OS on your USB flash drive. This thing works, because it loads all required files into ram during the 2nd usb scan (during XP logo), thereby allowing the flash drive to momentarily be disrupted without crashing.

Hey, thanks for the info. Yep, it's an issue. That's why it's number one in my postings today -- great if the problem could be solved. The folks offering the Lexar software say your mileage may vary, but they imply they have had some success with non-Lexar drives... So, it all might be a matter of individual hardware...

heehee, I hope I haven't added to the confusion in this thread.
I just wanted to give you all the head's up on BootIt's requirements and functionality.
Also, making live bootable usb FLASH drives is still a young subject. It is also not very well documented.
The CONFUSION is that most of the applications/tutorials out there are refferring to making a STANDARD usb hard drive (like a 500GB external HD) bootable on a computer that does not have a 'boot from usb' option in BIOS.
But people read the description and are thinking that the software will make a flash drive non-removable, bootable, and partitionable. And that's probably not what they mean. But again, it may mean just that, that the app should be able to make a usb flash drive bootable and partitionable and able to have an OS installed on it. Now, that's why I am trying to convey that the this is really really hard to do. and if the program could do it, they would be charging 100 dollars a pop for it so don't get too disappointed if it doesn't work. I'm gonna find a lexmark and if it works i'm gonna horde that *%*# to myself and write you'all a letter 'bout it in week or two lol .. unnh just kidding
Well
In general, if you want to do stuff with your flash drive, get an HP one. They have the only realiable app that will put a MBR onto a flash drive and let you reformat to NTFS and choose cluster size etc...

Notes: I do not see any mention of Lexar as the distributor or creator of BootIt, so please check and update any references to Lexar regarding BootIt. BootIt Timeline

quote:
"BootIt™ Next Generation: Quick History
BootIt 1.00 was released at the beginning of 1995 and contained several new innovative technologies
such as the ability to:

Have more than 4 primary partitions
Position partitions on the fly
Swap diskette drive A: and B: a feature that makes it possible to boot either diskette drive.
Swap hard drives, a feature that makes it possible to boot DOS or NT from a second physical hard drive.
BootIt 2.00 was released towards the end of 1996 and contained even more innovative technologies such
as:

The Extended Master Boot Record (EMBR): a standard for having more than 4 primary partitions on a
hard drive as well as an extensible firmware interface for the Intel platform.
A complete partitioning and multi-boot product in one.
As time went on, new innovations were introduced such as:

Booting from the next BIOS device
Booting NT above 2GB
In May 1998 BootIt Direct and BootIt Lite were released to fill an existing gap between available features and those requested by users.

Today there is BootIt Next Generation: the first all-in-one partitioning, multi-boot, and imaging utility. It is
a completely re-written product that is easy to use, has an attractive graphical user interface and contains more features than all prior BootIt products combined.
"http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootit ... ration.htm

if anyone wants the succession of sites I used to find this info, let me know. I am very happy to have found this little Easter Egg, but won't have a chance to try it out till next week. see ya

and download the srcipts pack USBOOT 2.10
Then run cmd_here.cmd and type in 'USBoot phase-0' then follow a few prompts and done. Downside, you must register and on first use of their program you must retrieve a challenge code from their website. However I did get the full Windows XP installed onto my 8 gb USB thumnb drive and very happy now

wow--great. Is US BOOT free? I do note the site says: "USBoot has to be activated once on each installation of Windows it is used on by a challenge-response cycle. Therefore the matching response code can be obtained for free from this website after registering with an account." But that can mean a lot of things....